26815. benear - Aug. 6, 1999 - 6:02
AM PT
Excellent analysis and synopsis, Ace.
I liked your point about the pacing of the film. This film
captures better than any other western the real pace of the West.
Being sorta from there and having actually worked for a year in
New Mexico, I can attest that people are in less of a hurry there.
The people of today that live there had to come from somewhere,
so I believe the "old West" was probably much as Leone
dipicted it.
I think this pace comes partly from the landscape. The distances
are so vast that when you are moving from one place to another,
there is simply no point in being in a hurry.
Secondly it stems from Spanish culture. Unlike the Northern
Europeans who settled the Eastern seaboard, the Southern
Europeans have a slower more graceful culture. This carried over
to the Western United States and is still there today.
Unfortunately, it is rapidly disappearing as American culture
becomes ever more homoginized. Denver, as just one example, has
become indistinguishable from any other large city in America.
Your point that Leone understood how to make a Western better
than most all American directors is dead on. And it stems from
his culture, just as you have pointed out.
26818. cllrdr - Aug. 6, 1999 - 6:53
AM PT
"But, of course, Leone uses such long takes to good effect—you
know goddamned well that something is going to happen, and Leone's
confidence in making you wait for it to happen is effective."
Congratulations -- you've justisolated the essence of Leone's
form of cinema. It's all in the antici-
pation.
26819. Raskolnikov - Aug. 6,
1999 - 7:06 AM PT
Ace: perfect review of GBU.
26820. Raskolnikov - Aug. 6,
1999 - 7:08 AM PT
and you *have* to see Once Upon a Time in the West. It screams
for widescreen though. It showed at a revival theater here last
year, but a good friend of mine had the temerity to ask me to be
in his wedding that weekend, so I still have only seen it on TV.
26821. ACEofSPADES - Aug. 6,
1999 - 7:17 AM PT
"Unlike the Northern Europeans who settled the Eastern
seaboard, the Southern Europeans have a slower more graceful
culture."
Well, I'd argue that this has precious little to do with Leone's
directorial style. It has much more to do with the conventions of
European cinema-- Europeans are accustomed to long takes of
mundane objects and actions. That whole "art house"
mentality.
Leone's style was a bit jarring to me at first. I did
occasionally have the urge to yell, "Okay, a guy's walking
across the street. Get on with it." Monty Python used to do
this all the time: Just film John Cleese walking to work (not
silly-walking; just walking normally) for long minutes. The
audience would eventually begin to giggle in anticipation of the
jokes they knew were coming.
With Leone, you know that something very violent is going to
happen. Men don't walk with that funereally slow, deliberate
cadence unless they're about to kill someone.
26822. cllrdr - Aug. 6, 1999 - 7:19
AM PT
I saw "Once Upon a Time in the West" it when it came
out in 1969. I was rather amazed at its length and ability to
keep me glued to my seat when "nothing" was happening.
Got a letterboxed laserdisc of it.
I especially love Lionel Stander resuming his story after a
shootout in a catina that takes up quite a bit of running time.
26823. ACEofSPADES - Aug. 6,
1999 - 7:20 AM PT
...it doesn't really need saying that I now *love* those long
moments of waiting.
The classic, over-the-top, hyper-edited build-up to the three way
shootout is a *different* sort of build-up, but once again Leone
shows both his confidence in filming three minutes of shifting
eyes and twitching fingers. The scene could easily have turned
laughable, if you didn't care so much about the outcome.
26824. ACEofSPADES - Aug. 6,
1999 - 7:22 AM PT
omit "both" from the above sentence.
26825. Raskolnikov - Aug. 6,
1999 - 7:57 AM PT
The opening scene in Once Upon a Time is probably my favorite bit
of waiting in the Leone film. The way the three killers pass the
time is an absolute hoot, and it really builds suspense.
26826. ACEofSPADES - Aug. 6,
1999 - 7:57 AM PT
Stop talking about Once upon a Time in the West, damnit...
26827. Raskolnikov - Aug. 6,
1999 - 8:00 AM PT
but its soooooo cool. Fonda is *such* a badass!
26862. CalGal - Aug. 6, 1999 -
12:39 PM PT
Ace,
I'm watching it the second time, to see what I think in regards
to your critique.
...
26871. FreeToChoose - Aug. 6,
1999 - 4:26 PM PT
OK, one quick note on OUATITW (or is it OTTW; I don't know the
rules) and then back to GBU.
This was the favorite movie of my (recently deceased) mother-in-law.
I had not seen the movie, but she would rave about it so much,
and play the sound track, that I decided I had to see it. The
first time I saw it, I think I caught it on TV part way through,
but I still loved it. Now, it's an addiction--if I'm channel
surfing and run across it, I have to stop and watch. I won't say
any more, but let me know if you ever decide to cover it in a
FrayFilmFest.
I liked GBU, but I always secretly worried that movie aficionados
would consider it trashy. Well, I didn't worry much, but I was
surprised to see it in a FilmFest. Same with Midnight Run,
although I confess I didn't know the name of the movie until you
started discussing it. This is another movie I stumbled onto part
way through, and it delivered much more than I expected. I've
watched more of it since, but I'm not sure I've actually seen it
from the beginning, so if we have time, we'll check for it at the
rental place this weekend. (Movers come Monday, so there are
other things on the schedule.)
Nice job Ace, on GBU summary. I'll enjoy the movie more next time
I see it.
